Abhanga 391

When devotion pulls someone you love away from ordinary life your complaint about it may be a sign God is at work, and standing before him yourself dissolves the grievance.

The verse

Literal translation

What it means

A gōpī-elders'-complaint-but-they-too-forget abhang. Five claims:

1. चाळवूनि नाशिली कन्याकुमरें — आमुच्या सुनांसि लाविलें पिसें — misled — ruined our girls-and-boys — put pisē in our daughters-in-law. The opening-complaint: Krishna has misled (cāḷavūnī, deceived/lured) and ruined our girls-and-boys; putpisē(madness) in oursuṇā(daughters-in-law). The gōpī-elders'-complaint about Krishna's-effect on the next-generation.

2. मिळोनि सकळै जणी करूं वाखा — तुज मज होईल तुटी — meeting all together — we'll say vākhā — but tuṭī between you and me will happen. The threat-of-confrontation: we'll meet together and reproach; but atuṭī(break, rupture) will happen between you and me. The threat is half-hearted; the rupture-fear.

3. शिंकीं कडा फोडी गोरसाचे डेरे — धरितां न सांपडे करीं — breaks śinkīm — gōrasa-ḍērē — doesn't get caught by hand. The concrete-mischief catalogue: breaks the rope-hooks holding the milk-pots, smashes the gōrasa-ḍērē (curd-pots); doesn't get caught by hand. The butter-thief image (compare 388).

4. अर्थ प्राण देतां न सोडी सर्वथा — भलतें हो या जिवाचें — gives wealth-life — doesn't release at all — whatever happens to this jīva. The contract-claim: (He) gives wealth and life — yet does not release at all; whatever may happen to thisjīva. He gives generously and holds firmly.

5. देखोनि तुकयास्वामी देश देहभाव विसरल्या सकळा — seeing Tukya-svāmī — all forgot deha-bhāva, friend. The closing-revelation: upon seeing Tukya-svāmī (the deva), all (the complaining gōpī-elders) forgotdeha-bhāva. The complainants forget themselves; the protest dissolves in darśana.

[T]

For someone today

The elder gopis gather to complain: Krishna has lured their sons and daughters and put a kind of madness into their daughters-in-law. They plan to confront him together, but even as they say it they sense the confrontation will end in a break between friend and friend, not in victory. He steals butter and breaks the pots and cannot be caught by hand no matter how you try. He gives you everything, wealth and life itself, but he never lets go of you in return. And then, in the last line, the twist: the moment the complaining elders actually see him, they forget their bodies, their roles, their whole complaint. The lesson is that when devotion draws someone you love away from ordinary life, your complaint about it may really be a sign that God is at work, and that when you finally stand before him yourself, your grievance dissolves.

मराठी: गावातल्या वडीलधाऱ्या गोपी एकत्र येऊन तक्रार करतात की कृष्णाने त्यांच्या मुला-मुलींना भुलवून टाकलं आहे आणि सुनांना जणू वेड लावलं आहे. त्या सगळ्या मिळून त्याला जाब विचारायचं ठरवतात, पण बोलता बोलताच त्यांना जाणवतं की या भांडणाने विजय मिळणार नाही, फक्त नात्यात तुटकपणा येईल. तो लोणी चोरतो, दह्या-दुधाची भांडी फोडतो आणि कितीही प्रयत्न केला तरी हाताला सापडत नाही. तो धनदौलत आणि प्राणही देतो, पण एकदा दिलेलं परत घेतल्याशिवाय तो कधी सोडत नाही. आणि शेवटी गंमत अशी की, ज्या क्षणी या तक्रार करणाऱ्या वडीलधाऱ्या त्याला प्रत्यक्ष पाहतात, त्याच क्षणी त्यांचा देहभाव आणि त्यांची तक्रार दोन्ही विसरून जातात. यातून शिकवण अशी की, जेव्हा भक्ती तुमच्या जवळच्या माणसाला रोजच्या जगण्यापासून दूर नेते तेव्हा तुमची तक्रार हीच खरं तर देव काम करत असल्याची खूण असते, आणि जेव्हा तुम्ही स्वतः त्याच्यासमोर उभे राहता तेव्हा तीच तक्रार विरघळून जाते.

Where this applies

• Bhakti interrupts worldly-trajectory. Complaint as evidence-of-genuineness.
• Threat dissolves; tuṭī feared. Half-hearted confrontation.
• Deva uncatchable by hand. Don't force rupture.
• Give-and-hold contract. Don't expect to escape grip.
• All forget deha-bhāva on seeing. Protest dissolves.

Related verses

• Abhanga 2481 — Pandharpur surpasses even the greatest pilgrimage cities because people there set aside pr
• Abhanga 4481 — Tukaram promises that sincerely calling on the Lord's name, knowingly or unknowingly, with
• Abhanga 4482 — Tukaram teaches that no ritual equals sincerely speaking the Lord's name, that self-center
• Abhanga 4483 — Tukaram tells of the gopis whose all-consuming secret longing for Krishna, hidden beneath